CNN blogger L.Z. Granderson examines the GOP election-year strategy of pressuring President Obama into making a military decision about Iran. He argues that the president is stuck between a rock and a hard place because an intervention of any kind would not sit well with voters come November.
I'm sure if President Barack Obama were stuck between a rock and a hard place, that would be preferable to the spot he currently finds himself in.
Consider this: Most nations agree Iran cannot be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon. However, no one — including the United States — can afford the price of another war. And in the middle of this delicate situation, Obama's rivals are thrashing about on TV, employing the first rule of politics: Characterize everything the incumbent says and does as wrong.
I'm not sure if Mahmoud Ahmadinejad intended to kidnap the 2012 general election with his little nuclear weapons game, but that is exactly what appears to have happened.
Obama, the man, is being tested because Obama, the politician, must find a way to navigate the world through this current Middle East quagmire without being sidetracked by what may or may not be the best narrative for his re-election bid. Not that his integrity or foreign policy have anything to do with what his opponents say about him.
On Sunday, the president stood in front of the crowd at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and reiterated that while he prefers to handle the Iranian nuclear dilemma with diplomacy, he will not hesitate to use military force to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
Read L.Z. Granderson's entire blog entry at CNN.